The biggest news this week is all about the new genre shows that were given the greenlight by the networks this week. We have a rundown and videos from each. Plus there is a ton of news on movie sequels from Indy to Spider-man to Iron Man and more. And the usual assortment of new images and trailers and other TV news so what are you waiting for?

2008 NEW GENRE TV SHOWS

This past week saw the networks present their new and returning shows to advertisers. Due to the writers strike there are about half as many new shows for next season, but still a good amount of new genre TV. Here’s a quick rundown of the new genre shows for 2008/09.

ABC: "Life on Mars"
Sam Tyler, a modern-day police detective, mysteriously finds himself transported back to 1973 after a car crash and still working as a detective. DS9’s Colm Meaney co-stars in the UK to US import.

CBS: "Eleventh Hour"
Rufus Sewell stars as Dr. Jacob Hood, a brilliant biophysicist and special science advisor to the government who investigates scientific crises and oddities.

FOX: "Fringe"
From JJ Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, Fringe is an X-Files like show about a special FBI team paired with a scientist, researching the paranormal.

FOX: "Dollhouse"
From Joss Whedon, Dollhouse is about a secret-and highly illegal-facility where human slaves are programmed to fulfill the fantasies, needs, and whims of the rich and powerful..

NBC: "Knight Rider"
Essentially a continuation of the two hour movie which NBC aired in Spring.

NBC: "Merlin"
A modern day retelling of the story of Camelot focusing on before Merlin and Arthur ‘became legends.’ Features a young cast along with Buffy’s Anthony Head as Uther.

Cast of "Merlin"

Coming back and saying goodbyeThis week also has news on what genre shows will be returning and which ones are history.

Returning Shows (10):

ABC: "Eli Stone", "Pushing Daisies", "Lost"

CBS: "Ghost Whisperer"

CW: "Reaper", "Supernatural", "Smallville"

FOX: "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

NBC: "Heroes", "Medium"

Canceled Shows (5):

CBS:"Jericho", "Moonlight"

FOX:"New Amsterdam"

NBC: "Bionic Woman", “Journeyman”

MOVIE NEWS

Spider-Man 4 and 5 May Shoot Back-to-backJames Vanderbilt ("Zodiac") has turned in a draft for "Spider-Man 4" which apparently allows Sony/Columbia to shoot two films back-to-back. Cinematical reports:

"[Vanderbilt’s] story arc has encompassed two films, making "Spider-Man 5" shootable at the same time. The studio saw dollar signs and is in the process of reworking his deal to snatch up the story arc."

Lucas has an idea for Indy 5
Speaking of 5s, George Lucas wants to make more Indiana Jones films and his ‘Indy 5’ idea revolves around having Mutt Williams (Shia LaBeouf) as the lead: “I haven’t even told Steven or Harrison this,” Lucas told Fox News, "but I have an idea to make Shia [LeBeouf] the lead character next time and have Harrison [Ford] come back like Sean Connery did in the last movie. I can see it working out.” For his own part, LaBeouf told MTV that he didn’t “think a Mutt spinoff would be as big as Indiana Jones, [but] fingers crossed!”

Cloverfield sequel not a sure thingJ.J. Abrams, co-producer of "Cloverfield" told SCI FI Wire that a sequel to the hit monster film is not a given, revealing that he’d rather do another project with his "Cloverfield" partners:

"We’re talking about it," Abrams said of Cloverfield 2 during an interview at the Fox upfront presentation for advertisers in New York on May 15, where he was promoting his upcoming SF TV series Fringe. "But the truth is there’s another idea that I’d rather do with the same people than do a sequel. It’s a whole new thing."
Abrams added, "So my dream is to work with [Goddard and Reeves] again, but do something that’s [new]. Having said that, Drew and Matt both, separately, have really good ideas for what [Cloverfield 2] could be. So I don’t know. We’ll see. I know the studio wants it."

Twilight Sequels Could be shot back-to-back
Though Summit Entertainment’s big screen adaptation of "Twilight" only recently entered post-production, the studio is already talking about the possibility of filming the sequels back-to-back: "Our vampires can’t age…if they were like 45, people would say ‘What’s up?’" laughed director Catherine Hardwicke told MTV. "[Filming them together] could be the case. Then, you just get it done." The lead stars are already contractually signed on for at least three films, so if the sequels ("New Moon" and "Eclipse") are green lit, they could go into production immediately.

Jon Favreau still unsigned for Iron Man Sequel
With a sequel already in development and with the almost unanimous critical praise for the first film, it’s hard to imagine not seeing director Jon Favreau return for the Iron Man sequel, but the director told Howard Stern he’s still not signed: “They haven’t offered me anything yet.” “They’re all talking – they want to do it, they even announced a date.” Favreau also confirmed that if he were signed for a sequel, he was interested in taking on the Demon in a Bottle storyline.

Fraggle Rock Musical on the way
The Weinstein Company is reviving the classic Jim Henson Co. HBO series "Fraggle Rock", turning the series into a live-action musical feature. Cory Edwards ("Hoodwinked!") will direct and write the screenplay. The Jim Henson Co. will produce. The film will feature the core characters Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red as they interact with humans, who they believe are aliens. [Variety]

Frank Miller will not be directing ‘Buck Rogers
As noted in last week’s Sci-Fi Saturday, Nu Image/Millenium immediately contacted IGN informing the site that Frank Miller was not signed on to direct their "Buck Rogers" update. This week comes confirmation of that news from writer-producer Flint Dille, who says that Miller is definitely not directing it. The studio is on the hunt for a new "contender" to direct the film.

BenderSpink and FilmEngine have announced that they are working on a third installment in the "Butterfly Effect" franchise. [SCI FI Wire]

The film rights to R.L. Stine’s young-adult "Goosebumps" series have been acquired by Columbia Pictures, who will be bringing the series to the big screen for the first time. [Variety]

20th Century Fox has set a February 27, 2009 release date for "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li". [ComingSoon.net]

Director Michael Bay confirmed on his message board that Australian actress Isabel Lucas has been cast in the role of Alice in "Transformers 2".

MORE TV NEWS

NBCU looking into producing more Battlestar Galactica TV Movies
Though ratings were weak for the two-hour “Razor” TV movie (a 1.2 rating), Chicago Tribune TV writer Maureen Ryan is reporting that up to three more “Battlestar Galactica” TV movies (all likely prequels of some sort similar to “Razor”) may get made later this year:

Executives are now doing number-crunching for these proposed films, and any deals for these movies are far from done. However, it would make sense to make more “Battlestar” TV movies while the show’s creative team and actors are still all in one place, as it were.

Ryan also adds that EP Ron Moore is currently writing the series finale. The movies could air this autumn, before the final 10 episodes of the series premiere on SCI FI. And lastly, Ryan reveals that a new set of webisodes are scheduled to premiere online that will link the first and second halves of season four.

Allison Mack returning to Smallville next season
"Smallville" fans can breathe a sigh of relief, Allison Mack is not leaving the series. TV Guide is reporting that the actress has signed a deal to remain a series regular next season and will appear in every episode of the show’s eighth season. With Michael Rosenbaum’s exit and Kristin Kreuk only returning in a limited capacity, the show regulars next season are expected to be Tom Welling, Laura Vandervoort, Erica Durance, Aaron Ashmore and Allison Mack as well as the two actors who’ll play Davis "Doomsday" Bloom and a new female character named Tess.

"Heroes" Webisodes To Premiere in JulyDuring their upfront presentation this past week (which was actually their second presentation), NBC revealed that they will premiere a set of webisodes for "Heroes" on NBC.com in July. Details are scarce, but early word indicates the episodes may be used to introduce a new villain leading up to the third season premiere. Looks like this may be NBC’s workaround for that "Heroes: Origins" spinoff that they were forced to cancel late last year. The third season of "Heroes" kicks off on September 15th with a one-hour recap special at 8pm, followed by the two-hour season three premiere from 9-11pm.

TV BITES

Packed with five featurettes, bloopers, audio commentaries and even an Oceanic Airlines Safety Guide, the fourth season of “Lost” hits DVD and Blu-ray Hi-Def on December 9th. [TVShowsOnDVD]

Fox’s two upcoming SF series “Dollhouse” and “Fringe” will be accompanied by just 5 minutes of commercials. [THR]

Moonlight was canceled by CBS, but Nikki Finke is reporting that Media Rights Capital (who is programming The CW’s Sunday night’s next season) is keeping their options open for a possible midseason pickup of the series though the prospects for a renewal still remain very weak. [DeadlineHollywoodDaily]

Personally this new Punisher movie looks like it’ll actually live up to its name. Thomas Jane was a poor choice to play someone who goes by “The PUNISHER” IMO. Sure, the first movie had cheesy acting and a bad storyline (not to mention the lack of the skull on his shirt, but I digress on that), but at least Dolph Lundgren lived up to the name of “The PUNISHER”.

Nobody really hates Shatner. The hate thing is all part of the media hype. ;-)

The old TV theme music in the new Hulk movie is cool. The Hulk himself doesn’t look very convincing. Call me old fashioned but at least a body builder painted green looks physically real. I bet digital technology could be used to make an actor playing the Hulk look convincingly bigger than Lou Ferrigno and it wouldn’t look like a video game.

I assume you are talking about the section on Iron Man2. So what would you call the status of that project? By the way…Transformers 2 sure seemed to have some color light before you handed in the script in April…they were already in pre-production right?

Oddly enough, parts of it are from the Hulk video game that came out a few years ago. The part where he grabs the two cars, smashes them up and then puts them around his hands was a special attack that could be used in the video game. And coupled with the “thunder clap” (yeah, I know he did this in the comix) also from the game, it’s not doing anything to get me interested in this.

I have changed the above article to note that Iron Man 2 is ‘in development’ and I admit I should have caught that before. Back in 2006 and 2007 this site often noted that even though Paramount had put out a poster and you and JJ were talking about Trek, it still wasnt greenlit and wouldnt be until your script was done. Of course Trekmovie.com was the first to write a ‘Star Trek has been greenlit’ article in late Februaryhttp://trekmovie.com/2007/02/26/star-trek-xi-has-been-greenlit/

Although I believe you clarified for me once that technically the film was greenlit in January before JJ made his final decision to direct.

Anyway, thanks for the clarification…if you care to drop by the spoiler article and clarify any in that one…in great detail…please feel free

I hope the webisodes for BSG put some of the story together. Ever since the Season 3 finale the show has been awful. It’s like they had storylines for 3 more seasons, but are now trying to smash them all into one.

Of all the movies coming out over the next year and a half or so, the two I look forward to most are Watchmen, and of course, Star Trek. though I must say, this year for movies is shaping up to be one of the best in a long while.

I’m praying the powers that be breath new life into Trek. It’s certainly due and it’s a shame such a fine and established franchise has been allowed to hang by one finger over a cliff for so long.

Cool to see Colm Meaney co staring in Life on Mars,
but yet again why do you need an american verison
the Uk one was fine, good god people why do you need to remake
shows ? that are already in English , we all know what happened
when you tried Red Drawf

and sarcastic yay !!! Night Shyamalan is back on the Hype train, i wonder what lame paranoid twist we will get this time

Hmm, the US version of the Eleventh Hour is using the script from one of the four UK episodes. But they way they played that scene revealing the info about the cloned babies was…ehhh. I hope their original scripts come out better.

Is it a new trend that “experts” on TV have to act like total jerks? (Ala House)

Tom Jane left for on reason, he wanted more money. The powers that be said “No” and he left. Thats ok, Tom Jane was tp munch of a pretty boy anyway. Check out the movie “Outpost” Ray Stevenson is going to be a good Punisher.

I get worried when I hear people say things like :”The first one had the Knight Industries 2000, and this one has the Knight Industries 3000!” with gusto and self assuredness.

Then they show a talking late model Mustang (snore) with a supersized logo on the front and Cylon headlights which, when seen in your rearview mirror, will make you crash..

When this burst of creativity peters out, I have an idea: Lindsay Lohan drives up in Herbie the Love Bug, and the hijinx ensue. Herbie was always far cooler than KITT because half the time the driver was scared he/she would die or be maimed in a fiery car crash.

Or give KITT this feature: Michael fears for his very life every time he gets in. How about a Star Trek reference?

Indy with Shia? Not so much. Ditto Cloverfield II. Sorry JJ — some things just aren’t meant to be sequeled.

I’m gonna go all knee-jerk on this one… but… The Happening looks like something that shouldn’t even have been made. Is it really a good thing that a trailer full of suicides air? Honest to God, I have kids. I don’t want this trailer on TV. I’m the last one to push for censorship, but suicides encourage more suicides. How much coke did they snort outta the trough before green-lighting this one??

Cloverfield stunk IMHO. I know a lot of people liked it, but most of those people would also like 1 straight commercial-free hour of explosions and car accidents and bodies being thrown from buildings.

Also, I expect Knight (coattail) Rider to be canceled within it’s first season. Actually, I hope it will be. Anyone that saw the two hour movie will agree. It was god-awful and in no way carried the same charm and personality as the original. It thrills me to think the makers of such shlock think me so unintellectual as to be remotely interested by such utter incompetence, from the “acting” to the writing and the cruddy CGI. While I’m at it:

Attention Hollywood writers and directors; use your collective imaginations and come up with an idea of your own. The majority of remakes, reboots and continuations are failing and do not cut it with most TV viewers and ticket buyers. Just because you liked it as a kid doesn’t mean you should probably make a movie or TV show of it (Speed racer, Dragonball-Z, another Knight Rider series, Bionic Woman, etc.). I understand nostalgia, but come up with something new or get out of the industry. Unless the rumors are true, and you’re all simply out of ideas.

And I agree with 25.CmdrR. The Happening looks like it should go straight to DVD, if not the garbage. Why make a movie about something in the water making people kill themselves? Is there nothing else that can be made with a little more of a positive message available in script form? Granted, Shyamalan is definitely an original thinker, but his movies are so dark and brooding. Does he see a psychologist or just need a hug? I’ll not see that one.

There is a deficit of creativity these days in “Hollywood” which is alarming.

Maybe someone could help me out here. The corporate process is alarmingly dysfunctional when it comes to green-lighting big-budget films.

Let’s take “Speed Racer.” It is THE stinking turd of 2008 (so far). It’s made $37m worldwide in a week. $120m to make, almost as much to market. It’s about to close. What happened?

First of all, Speed Racer is a property which most Americans over 40 (parents) regard as disposable crap. It gets on the list with “Wacky Racers” and “HR Pufinstuff” as forgettable fodder from our youth. I had many laughs with American friends as we discussed how a sh*tty show was getting high-budget treatment. My European friends had no recollection of the show. No market? No business.

We over-40 types generally do not care about Japanese animation techniques, so most parents who were alive then won’t care or know what “live action anime” is. We saw Speed Racer and Gigantor as kids, and they were, honestly, crap cartoons.

Also, we have seen the Flintstones destroyed, Popeye destroyed, the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch…

Maybe Bob or Dennis can shed some light on where the process goes dreadfully wrong. George Lucas warned people to temper their expectations for Indy IV, and on-site rumors say it sucked wind. How does that happen, after this thing was re-written so many times? How could a fart-stinker like Speed Racer make it to the cinema?

I expect Dollhouse to be incredible! There is so much room for humour, drama, tragedy, humour, introspection on the nature of identity, challenges to preconceived notions of accountability, humour, … the list goes on in this kind of premise. Joss Whedon is exactly the guy to helm this show, too, what with his work on Buffy, Firefly, and (IMO) his best show, Angel.

Best of all, in an interview with (I think) the LA Times, Whedon expressed confidence that the new regime at Fox “gets” the show in a way that the the old one never did with Firefly (Kevin Rielly fought hard at NBC to keep The Office on the air after low first-season ratings).

Haha, yes I have, and yes I could certainly understand if that was the motivation! :) But if you look at Joss’s various projects, he’s keen on using the same actors in different shows. I think that’s a pretty cool thing.

35… I miss “Journeyman” also. The idiots at NBC poured all of their marketing and promotion into “Bionic Woman”, a show which was vastly inferior to “Journeyman” in all aspects. Oh well, at least they picked up “Chuck” and “Life” for next season.

By the way, “Chuck” should be on the list of genre shows NBC renewed. Chuck had a computer downloaded into his brain, afterall.

I just wanted to make a note on that ‘Happening’ trailer. As noted in the parentheses it’s a red-band trailer, which means it’s not approved for general audiences (i.e. not the normal green-band trailer). Follow the other link I have posted there for a longer trailer that in addition to being more on the safe side in terms of what content is shown, also includes an intro from M. Night. It’ll give you an idea of what he’s going for with the movie.

Then again early reviews are really harsh on the movie, so he may have completely missed the mark. Time will tell.

Thanks for the comments and noticing some of the mistakes everyone. We’ll remedy the mistakes shortly.

Andy I agree, Spiderman needs to go in an entirely new direction. In addition to recasting, I think they need to give him a truly worthy adversary Someone who would really challenge Spiderman in a way he”s never been challenged before. The movie that i want to see Spiderman pitted against Beyonder. That would greatest nono second superhero battles of all time, the one drawback with my idea is what would you do to fill up the remaining 2 hours plus funning time of the movie.

Garo,I miss your contributions these days. You have a computer connected to your brain which references the depth of obscurity. My first “Marvel Teamup” was Spidey and the Falcon in 1977. How cool is that?.

You mean nobody remembers who Beyonder was? One of the most powerful characters any comic book ever came up with. Actually in one of th spiderman series spiderman was summoned by Beyonder to fullfill a task and He did actually try to battle him, that battle to was brief. The only vcahters that might pose a challenge to beyonder would be the migty Korvac who has not known power limits who if im not mistaken is happily residing in Deahts Relm,Siesneg who from what I have been told is the magic equivilant to Korvac.

I think the poster for The Mummy you have there is fake… If you look closely to the names beneath you’ll notice those are the cast members names of The Dark Knight, You can clearly see Christopher Nolan Chris Bale Maggie Gyllenhaal and Morgan Freeman in the first row (sorry for spelling the names wrong)

Your recent reference, “The only vcahters that might pose a challenge to beyonder would be the migty Korvac who has not known power limits who if im not mistaken is happily residing in Deahts Relm,Siesneg who from what I have been told is the magic equivilant to Korvac” makes you a serious candidate for immediate electroshock therapy.

#16 – I presume they just want to give their audience something they can relate to. For todays American kids, British 70s would be even stranger than Mars. They have hard time remembering *their own* 70s already… :-)

Shame that Journey to Center of Earth (JTTCOTE) looks like yet another over CGI’d action film…dare I name them..you know them augh. The original JTTCOTE with James Mason was richly filmed in Carlsbad Caverns with stellar talent. Now we get Brendan (Mummy films, Encino Man) Fraser and two kids…ouch. Would be refreshing if Hollywood would not be so dependant upon CGI to fill in the gaps for great story and solid acting. We as a viewing public are constantly fed too much of this video game era garbage. CGI should enhance and not drive the plot.
I can see the writers, producers and director now…”look we can do it all in the studio, use cgi dinosoaurs & cave…” Then comes a bad rewrite of a Jules Vernes classic. Presto summer movie fare!
For what its worth, I saw Ironman this weekend, familiar and good story, well-acted out by Downey with some heart and CGI was necessary for the effects.

Best summer line up for many a year, can’t wait! My order of looking forward to-ness: 1, X-files; 2, Dark Knight; 3, Indi; 3=, Hulk; 5, Centre of the Earth (loved the original! (but does that mean I’ll be disappointed?))

Indy IV is getting lots of press from Cannes, but the Paramount PR machine must be wondering how a Reuters article called “Critics Mostly cheer Return of Indiana Jones in New Film” could contain a bad review:

“But Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter told Reuters: “They (the audience) got a rollercoaster that didn’t seem to want to stop for nearly two hours and they didn’t get much story, or character, or wit or plot.

“We’re all kind of bewildered about what they thought they were making.” ”

It’s supposed to be fun, but I think George Lucas’s warning to lower expectations was warranted.

So, what about the new Star Trek trailer that’s supposed to debut before Indy IV? This one seems to have dropped off the radar.

As far as the new TV season goes, my response is “meh.” Can’t really get too worked up over any of them – and now that Rosenbaum is gone from Smallville, how do they resolve the cliffhanger at the end of season 7? Does he just disappear? Is he in that episode and somehow goes away with his memory wiped? What kind of reset button is Gough and Millar (who are not with the show in S8) going to use? This one has officially “jumped the shark”, not easy to do for a fantasy superhero show.

Supernatural’s season finale, though, rocked. Loved the use of “Carry On Wayward Son” by Kansas – but oh, my, they’d better get Dean out of wherever he is in a hurry, or his body’s gonna start to stink something awful (and the show might, too, if Kripke’s not careful).

I may be all alone on this, but I am disappointed (but not surprised) to see Fox has canceled “New Amsterdam.” A smart show that didn’t beat you over the head with the sci-fi aspects. It was just part of the fabric of the show. Guess it will join the long list of good television that didn’t get a fair chance (Dresden Files, anyone?).

A couple of weeks ago, I wondered aloud how great it would be if the new Indy movie had references to Roswell. Or something like that. Well, I just read a few days ago that it will indeed have references to extraterrestrials.

END OF INDY SPOILER.

For that piece of speculation, a part of me credits this very column. Just goes to show you how much ahead of the game you can be when you read it. Bravo, Rosario! :-)

Don’t know what “meh” you mean on Caspian. Just saw it and it’s a great film! Better and more evolved than the first. The “meh” could be in regards to the weaker than expected box, but I’m seriously hoping this has some staying power. It is a great film that deserves to be seen and perform well.